Notes on reviewing code an agent mostly wrote. What breaks in the workflow, what other teams are publishing about their own review load, and which tools hold up when you check the claim.
2026
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Where AI review pays: the codebase matters more than volume
The review bottleneck is not that there is more code. The gains from AI shrink on mature codebases, so where you spend review effort shifts.
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Review time is up 441% under vibe coding. That is the real problem.
Field note on a peer-reviewed review reporting code-review time up +441% under AI-assisted development, and why the productivity number to watch is the one nobody markets.